


Flawed Design

by Astarte



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Crushes, Drabble Collection, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-02
Updated: 2007-05-02
Packaged: 2018-04-25 12:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4959805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astarte/pseuds/Astarte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’s not young enough to know everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flawed Design

**Author's Note:**

> Five drabbles. Little something that sprung out of a sentence challenge Dawn – Oranges. Thanks, Countess Mary for the inspiration. Set after BtVS 5x22 The Gift.

It’s a game – always. For as long as Dawn can remember this – him. Spikes eyes sparkle with the challenge. Her price just dangling out of reach for her. She can picture his smooth move to grab her hair like the immature asshole he is. Spike’s hand is just one wrong shift away from her ponytail and she goes for it. Her tongue darts out. Sweet rich drops and one slow flick over his thumb before Dawn bites down through overripe flesh –

The perfect surprise on his face is sweeter than the orange. Must be her triumph over him.

Gotcha, vampire!

~O~

Their rules are flexible, bend like their bodies through laughter.

And Spike can’t remember why this is a bad idea so he doesn’t care. Grabs her from behind and hauls her over his shoulder. Squirming girl half-heartily thumping against his back and she goes down for this.

Yeah, hosepipe style.

The cold water shocks her giggles into silence and now he remembers why. Why he shouldn’t have done this. Her wet t-shirt hides nothing, clings to her curves like a promise and he stands motionless, wondering, when Dawn had the time to grow up.

Why he didn’t notice her change.

~O~

Dawn thought about them. Before. Girlish dreams of her dusty knight saving her from Glory.

And when Spike ultimately failed her up on that tower - helplessly flying thought the night like a fucking rag doll, she only cursed herself for announcing his presence. She couldn’t save herself. He couldn’t. But that was okay, because she always counted on Buffy for that.

Dawn hopes her sister gets this strange co-dependency.

Had it before with Angel and she is the same age. At least on her fabricated birth certification. On rare moments she wants that for herself. Contentment. Her own memories.

~O~

Spike isn’t sure what he imagined her to be. Some shade of her fierce sister or green energy pulsing like novae. Sometimes he can’t look at her without wistful thinking and then she will surprise him with some gesture so fundamentally Dawn, that the thought of her as anything _but_ is painful.

Dawn's untamed under his fingertips. Bones delicately breakable underneath her humming skin and she isn’t afraid. Not of him. Never. Not of this and that is a shock, because Spike is shaking to his core. She holds him closer.

Inviting him in under the cover of her smile.

~O~

It’s awkward at first –

His kiss bounces forth like a pendulum unsure of the right moment to swing back and Dawn is almost more aware of the kitchen table pressing into her ass than she is of his hands on her hip. Dawn feels like laughing, if it weren’t for the tight knot in her stomach and then suddenly everything clicks.

Ignorance was bliss for a while.

He is the one who pretends to live and she feels deceased. Inhales his scent. They fit in a way like holy water on demon skin and she burns so sudden and unexpected.


End file.
